There is political news and then there is Political News — deserving of the capital letters.
These are stories that not just pundits or analysts are talking about but they reverberate around the country, from the school gate, taxi drivers to the family dinner table. Stories that consume the news cycle for days on end.
Arguably New Zealand’s biggest Political News story was 40 years ago. Sir Robert Muldoon, slurring on his words called a snap election. The country would go to the polls in four weeks time. He lost, with David Lange’s Labour sweeping into power.
But the former PM refused to go quietly and his actions, or inaction, to follow expert advice to devalue our dollar left the country teetering on the edge of a constitutional crisis.
In this weeks Newsmakers Revisited we speak to Sir Geoffrey Palmer, who was the Labour Party’s Deputy Prime Minister at the time who said the whole thing was “nuts”.
We asked 1News’ Senior Political Reporter Benedict Collins to chip in with his thoughts on the political stories that capture his and the nations attention.
Benedict Collins: From National’s 2020 collapse to Labour’s 2023 chaos
In 2020, the National Party collapsed in the most spectacular fashion.
After rolling an unpopular leader in the hope of winning over Kiwis — and the election — the instigators of the coup installed a man who threw in the towel just 53 days later.
Seasoned politician Judith Collins took the reins and a hospital pass — overseeing National’s second-worst result at a general election.
Along the way, MPs disgraced themselves by sending unsolicited sexual images to young women and passing the private details of Covid-19 patients on to media. Having had enough, one MP announced their retirement, changed their mind and un-retired, and then decided to retire after all.
For a while, it felt like a complete and utter circus, with resignations, retirements and sackings most days. To top it off, there was the infamous walkabout down Auckland’s Ponsonby Rd, where party plants met their leader with great, and staged, enthusiasm.
The party crashed to a 25% share of the vote on election day.
Three years on, the governing Labour Party — riding a high after becoming the first party to govern alone under the MMP system — took their best shot at emulating National’s implosion and soon found themselves turfed out of office.
After their boss quit and hit the road at the start of the election year, one by one other Ministers began to follow suit.
There was the Justice Minister who was arrested after crashing her car while driving drunk, there was the Police Minister who admitted to interfering in a police case live on air, there was the Transport Minister who failed to sell shares relating to his portfolio despite being reminded to a dozen times, and you can throw in a defection to a rival political party for good measure.
It doesn’t take long for a political parties’ fortunes to change.